Corybantic Dance: Perfect Trust
by Penbrydd
Summary: [HSAU] A collection of shortfic involving Genma and Raidou in the Corybantic Dance timeline. Set outside the time of the core story. Each chapter stands alone.
1. Waiting

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** This takes place several years after Corybantic Dance, so it's set in Boston sometime shortly after the turn of the century.  
_

_**Warnings:** Expletives, implications  
_

* * *

Genma didn't even look up from the book in his hands. "Raidou, you will not live to see tomorrow. Stop thinking it and give me the goddamn ice."

Laughing, Raidou slipped the Sharpie back into his pocket and sat on the back of the couch, passing an orange ice to Genma. "You've got eyes in the back of your head. You _have to_."

"Don't need them. I know that kind of quiet. Besides, you smell like trouble when you do shit like that." Genma held out his hand for an ice spoon and peeled the lid from the cup with his teeth. "I'm out of lemon again, I see."

"It's because you eat all the lemon first. I'm surprised the kid didn't beat me to the cherry." Raidou passed over the mostly useless excuse for a spoon, with a grin.

"He's sick again. I didn't figure the ices would survive the trip to the hospital." Genma set the book in his lap on the floor and turned to sit in the corner of the couch. Pulling both knees up, he scraped at the orange ice.

Raidou blinked and gaped. "What in the _fuck_ are you doing sitting here?"

"Waiting. I already got kicked out once today. And that was after they thought they kicked me out last night. I have to let the shift change before I try again." Genma sounded like this was the most perfectly reasonable thing in the world. He licked the ice scrapings off the wooden spoon. "Just waiting. He'll be home eventually. He always comes home."

Staring at his friend's dead-eyed face, Raidou could almost see the static holding the man together. "Yeah, of course he's coming home. It's just been wet these last few weeks. That's probably all it is."

"It's just another trip to the hospital." Genma ran his hand through his hair, absently flicking his wrist to shake off the strands that had fallen out. There was more of Genma's hair on the furniture, these days, than fur from the cats, but he had grace and style, especially under pressure. Where someone else would have looked worn and sick with worry, he just looked bored and slightly less than amused. Girls thought he looked sexy, but girls were the last thing on his mind, with his boyfriend in the hospital for the third time in as many months. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Yeah, sure. Sorry." But, Raidou didn't change the subject; he just stared into his ice and quietly scraped at it.

"So, I heard Ko finally found out the hard way that cold sores are contagious." Same deadpan delivery. Genma barely looked like he'd moved at all, except that he kept scraping and eating ice.

Raidou stopped with a spoon covered in ice shavings halfway to his mouth. "From Izumo, I hope. I'd hate to have to clean him up with a squeegee and a bucket."

"Better. He _gave it_ to Izumo." Genma's eyes finally glinted mischievously.

"I'll get the bucket," Raidou offered weakly, gaping in amused horror at his friend before laughter finally overtook him.

Genma's face finally softened and he let one leg slide off the couch as he snickered and ate ice. Orange wasn't as good as lemon, but he had no complaints, really. Hayate would be home, soon, and then he'd buy another case of ices. Lemon just wasn't as good without someone else to kiss you and tell you it was gross. 


	2. Respect

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** This occurs before Corybantic Dance, probably just before the start of Genma and Raidou's junior year.  
_

_**Warnings:** Expletives, implications  
_

* * *

Genma was on his seventh slice of pizza of the evening, and Raidou looked at his slim friend in astonishment. He'd only eaten four slices, himself, and put the rest in the fridge for breakfast. But Genma? Genma had a hollow leg or something.

"I will never understand how you can eat like that. Aren't you afraid of ruining your girlish figure?" Raidou couldn't resist teasing Genma, occasionally.

Genma leapt up and set the pizza box on the couch before sliding his hands down his sides. "I do not have a girlish figure, goddammit." With a look of dismay, he glanced down to where his hands had come to rest on his jutting hips. "Okay, I might be lying."

"Might be." Raidou snorted, tracing the curve of his friend's slightly too slim body with his eyes.

"Hey, fuck you. It's _not_ that bad." Genma patted his chest. "Look, no tits. God, if it was that bad, you'd be hitting on me, or something."

"Who says I'm not?" Raidou asked, grinning as Genma stopped cold, gawking at him in stark horror. "I'm kidding. I promise."

"You'd better be! Holy shit, Rai! Don't fuck with me like that." Genma blinked and picked up his slice of pizza, muttering something about very uncomfortable situations.

"I'll tell you something, though." Raidou set the nearly empty pizza box on the coffee table and put his feet up on the couch. "Even if you were a girl, I don't think I'd do you. I respect you too much for that. You're my best friend." He shrugged.

Genma lifted Raidou's legs and sat on the couch, dropping them in his lap. "You've gotta stop taking your morality lessons from me, man. That's the most fucked up thing I think I've ever heard out of you. I mean, I understand the sentiment perfectly but, damn. I've watched you. You need more than just someone to fuck." He shook his head and took a bite of the pizza, continuing to talk with his mouth full. "I mean, yeah, Aoba and I might not be the best examples in that regard, but, seriously, you deserve someone who gives a shit -- someone who deserves your respect even more than I do."

Raidou scratched at the edge of the fresh scar on his face, where the skin was still peeling. "No one will ever deserve my respect more than you do, Genma. I'm amazed you'll still talk to me after that."

"You're my best friend, asshole. What was I going to do, bitch out on you because you wrecked on the track and took me with you? So fucking what? I'm just glad you're not dead." Genma picked up his soda and washed down another mouthful of pizza. "I'd be pissed as hell if you died on me. It's why I stayed right with you, you know? So I could threaten to punch the shit out of you if you died."

"If I died, I don't think I'd have noticed," Raidou pointed out.

"Oh, fuck off. It was the principle of the thing. I was out of my mind on painkillers. It made sense at the time." Genma pretended to sulk as he finished his slice of pizza and considered going after the last one.

"Thanks." The word was barely audible, issued just above a whisper as Raidou reached for the soda he'd left on the floor.

Genma raised his can of Jolt in a vague salute. "Here's to you and here's to me."

Meeting the can with his own, Raidou skipped to the end of the toast. "Fuck you, here's to me." After a brief weighty moment, they both dissolved into snickering fits. 


	3. Warnings

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** Genma is too good with his hands for anyone's continued health. Raidou decides he should come with warning labels. As (sort of) requested, half the story about Raidou's feet. Okay, this one's as long as the previous two put together. I guess I have to quit calling this a drabble collection._

_**Warnings:** Expletives, implications  
_

* * *

Genma threw the remote at the television with an irritated groan. It was three in the morning, and there was nothing on -- no late night movies or Twilight Zone re-runs, nothing but infomercials on every channel, except the channels with a constant stream of phone sex ads. He looked down the couch to where Raidou looked equally disgruntled with the state of the viewing options. 

"Hey, Rai, give me your feet." Genma turned to lean on the arm of the couch and held his hands out.

Raidou looked extraordinarily

suspicious. "My ... feet? Why?"

"The price of my popularity seems to be giving good head and better massages. I wanted to practice the less messy of those on you." Genma grinned temptingly. "Come on, you already know I'm good with your back."

"Yeah, that's what worries me. I know what you can do with your hands." Raidou rubbed at the scar on his face, a habit that hadn't faded once it stopped itching.

"Aw, come on, you hate it, tell me to stop. When has that ever not worked?" Had it not been Raidou at the other end of the couch, he'd have leaned over and pulled at his companion's pants. But it was Rai, and this was an uncomfortable subject for his friend.

"Fuck. Fine. Whatever." Turning to lean on the other arm of the couch, Raidou dropped his feet heavily into Genma's lap, slightly surprised when his friend raised an eyebrow, but didn't flinch. "You get to take my shoes off, though. I'm too damn lazy to do it for your amusement."

"Done. At least you don't wear boots. I might be too lazy if you did -- mine are more than enough." Genma laughed and untied Raidou's shoes, pulling them off and tossing them over his shoulder. There was nothing in that direction that they'd hurt. He squinted warily at Raidou's socks before shrugging and peeling those off, too, tossing them after the shoes. "I'm sure this is the part where I'm glad you put on clean socks every day. Irritatingly enough, I can tell. I've fucked enough people who didn't..."

"Man, do you _try_ to gross me out? Because you're doing a damn good job of it." Raidou shuddered in exaggerated disgust.

"I don't have to try. You're a fucking prude." Genma pressed his thumbs into the bottom of one of Raidou's feet, getting his bearings. He quickly found two pressure points that put the rest of the foot into perspective for him, and started to work.

"I am _not_ a prude! I just have --" A look of stunned pleasure slid across Raidou's face. "What was the question?"

Genma laughed and pressed his thumb into the same spot again. "I forgot."

Raidou grabbed the back of the couch so hard his knuckles whitened as his fist closed, and he squirmed, staring incredulously at Genma. "Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. That's _really good_." He blinked a few times and then patted himself down, checking to make sure all his body parts were where he'd left them. "Christ, if I knew girls who could do _that_, maybe I'd let them." He shook his head whistled.

Still laughing, Genma shook his head. "No, you wouldn't. Not unless they could talk about the anachronistic glitches in historical fiction while they did it." His hands never stopped moving, finding new points to test and watch the effects of.

"Fuck you!" Raidou complained. "I like my girls intelligent and my history accurate!"

"And I prefer my history to be crossovers, time-travel, or steampunk. Steampunk especially -- Victorian mad scientists are hot as hell." Genma watched Raidou's face as his hands relentlessly pressed and squeezed. "And one of these days I'll get a girl who wasn't too kinky for Aoba. And then I won't know what to do with her," he laughed.

Raidou snickered and kicked Genma in the side of the head with his other foot. "Dork."

"Asshole." Genma moved one thumb back to the spot he'd found that was so distracting, leaving the other where it was. As he pressed in, Raidou blanched and jerked his foot back with a skittering look of panic. "Oh, shit. What did I do? Are you okay?"

Raidou looked contemplative and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I just wasn't expecting -- What the fuck did you just _do_?" He moved his foot back toward Genma. "Do it again, but slower, this time. That's really fucking freaky."

Genma cradled Raidou's foot, but made no move to repeat the action. "Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you -- that kind of defeats the purpose."

"That -- that was _not_ pain. If there was _one_ thing that didn't do, it was hurt." Raidou still looked shaken. "Just do it. I want to _know_ if that's what I think that is."

Eyeing his friend in confused concern, Genma pressed his thumbs in again, gently at first. "These were the spots, I think. Am I right?"

Raidou shivered and rubbed his face, then nodded. He looked slightly ill. "Yeah," he breathed. "Yeah, that's where it was. A little harder?"

Still baffled, Genma complied. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, gazing concernedly at the look of fascinated horror on Raidou's face.

"Stop. You don't need to move your hands, but you do need to stop pressing." Raidou was twisting the couch cushions in his hands, and he still looked more than slightly green around the edges. "You need to know what you're doing before you do any more of it."

The last statement was definitely loaded, but Genma's mind refused to fill the blank with anything but static. That was okay, he figured, Raidou was about to tell him what he was rather insistently not seeing. He pulled his thumbs back and looked at Raidou in inquisitive concern, waiting for an answer.

"That's, ah... I mean, I ... You're..." Raidou shook his head, looking moderately distressed. "Genma, you're turning me on. Pretty badly, too. I, ah..." He shrugged and gestured futilely, and then tugged at the leg of his pants. "Really badly. And you-- You're not-- I wouldn't..."

"Jesus." Genma just stared blankly for a very long moment. "I'm sorry. Come on, I know you better than that."

"I know you wouldn't do it on purpose. Do you think I wouldn't have kicked you in the face if I thought you'd done it on purpose?" Slipping a hand into the collar of his shirt, Raidou picked at the scar on his shoulder. "One of these days, maybe I'll want you to help me figure out how far that goes, but right this minute I'm just a little freaked out. Okay, I'm a lot of freaked out. Girls, man. Tits. Bouncy bouncy." His other hand flapped uselessly, and then both hands rose to cover his face.

"Hey, it's all right. Just tell me what you want me to do." Genma stayed as still as he could.

Raidou pulled his feet back. "Go put the television back on. I want to watch a few phone sex ads and remind myself that I really do like girls, even if they're not as frighteningly talented as you are, and suddenly I think I might be glad most of them aren't." He stared at Genma for a good half a minute. "Yeah, okay, just checking. You really don't do it for me. Nothing there. It's not you, it's just your hands. You're fucking _dangerous_, man."

"I should come with warning labels." Genma stood up to get the remote, switching the television on again as he sat back down.

"You should. They'd say 'Warning -- Biohazard -- This bastard is made of pure, contagious sex'," Raidou laughed, nervously.

"I should paint that on a shirt." Genma nodded. "I like it."


	4. Catchy

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** For Raidou's 28th birthday, Genma decides to remind Rai what a bastard he can be, at times -- but he's a bastard with awesome taste in music. Ten years after CD._

_**Warnings:** Expletives.  
_

* * *

Raidou looked slightly confused as he looked at the CD in his hands. He'd never heard of the band, and he sort of wondered what in the fuck Genma had been thinking, and if it involved being drunk. "Do I want to know?"

"Aw, man, It's fuckin' hilarious. Like pub punk, but a little less oi. I heard track four and thought of you. Then I heard track seven and thought of Aoba. I think that was around the time I fumbled my drink." Genma grinned. "Put it _on_, asshole. I got it for your birthday -- don't you want to know what made me remember you, oh so fondly?"

"No, actually, the very idea scares the shit out of me, thanks much. I know you too well not to be nervous." Just the same, Raidou stood up, eyeing Genma with unabashed suspicion as he crossed to the stereo. "Am I going to have to hide this from my girlfriend? I mean, seriously, how concerned should I be, here?"

"What, you think so little of my brilliant taste in gifts?" Genma's hands crossed over his heart in a melodramatic display of mock offence.

"Ever since that time back in high school when you made _me_ buy the Twins' their birthday present." Raidou glared as he skipped tracks. "Four, you said?"

"Four. And I _had_ to get you to do it, Rai! Aoba and I weren't old enough to get into the porn store!" Genma protested.

"Any birthday gift that involves a porn store needs to be seriously rethought." Raidou pressed play and leaned on the stereo cabinet, tapping his foot. "Okay, it's catchy, if a little disturbing."

"Hey, they _loved_ that thing. We didn't see them for _days_ after that. And you're already liking this. See, I'm good." Genma glanced around where he sat on the floor, looking for his drink, before he remembered that he'd left it in the kitchen.

The lyrics started and it took Raidou two or three lines to catch them. _"It does not shift me it's not the kind of thing that I like / It does not move me it's not the kind of thing that I like."_ The amused horror spread slowly across his face as the song continued downhill from there. With an outraged gurgle of entertained dismay, he snatched the cushion from the couch and beat Genma across the back of the head with it. "You incredible cocksucking bastard!"

"Every word of it true," Genma proclaimed, grabbing Raidou by the shirt and pants and dragging him to the floor as he rolled deftly out of the way. "You wouldn't love me half as much any other way!"

Raidou grabbed Genma's face, and Genma, predictably, licked his palm. Even after all these years, it was enough to make the older man let go at once. "Augh! Genma!" Raidou wiped his hand on his pants.

"Hey, man, you started it."

"I think you started it. Fucker. I can't _believe_ you, some days. And on my birthday, too, you sorry fuck." Raidou sat up, nursing his wounded pride.

"I am not a sorry fuck. You take that back. I'm a very proud fuck. Nigh unto arrogant in bed, I'm told." Genma looked smug as he propped himself up on his elbow. "And, yes, on your birthday. For your birthday. You have to admit it's catchy as hell."

"One of these years, I'm going to kill you and claim temporary insanity." 


	5. Lucky

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** November, before the accident. This is the second time ever that Genma has had the flu, and he doesn't remember the first time. If Raidou wasn't trying to help him, he'd kill him.  
_

_**Warnings:** Expletives.  
_

* * *

If there was one thing that was pretty definite about Genma, it was that he didn't ditch class unless something really significant was going on, like his mother coming home just for a couple hours in the middle of one day, and leaving for another two or three weeks, right after. Even then, he didn't usually skip classes. He'd see his mother when they happened to be in the same place at the same time. So when Genma didn't show up for an entire day of school, Raidou knew something was wrong. By three thirty, he was standing outside Genma's apartment, not getting an answer to the truly ridiculous amount of pounding on the door he was doing. That was a bad sign. On the bright side, though, Genma had given him a key, recognising that perhaps not having family meant that _someone_ should be able to let him in when he locked himself out of the house.

Raidou figured that Genma wouldn't be all that upset if he just ducked in and made sure nothing was wrong. And if something was wrong, then Genma could just shut the fuck up and be glad someone was there to handle it. Through all this, it never once occurred to Raidou that what was wrong might be something he couldn't handle. He had yet to meet such a situation.

Stepping into the apartment, Raidou called out. "Genma? You home? It's me. I've got your homework."

There was no answer, which in Raidou's mind meant Genma probably wasn't home. Just the same, he figured he should have a look around -- make sure Genma hadn't gotten drunk and passed out in the shower or something -- it was the kind of thing that stupid bastard was going to do, eventually, Rai was certain. The bathroom was empty, though, and he moved on to the next door: Genma's bedroom.

And suddenly Raidou was extremely glad that he'd stopped by. There was Genma, the human furnace, under most circumstances, sitting slumped against the corner of the room on his bed with every blanket in the house piled on top of him, grey-faced and shivering, soaked in sweat. Raidou dropped his backpack and sat down on the bed, tugging blankets off his unconscious best friend. "Genma? Come on, man. Wake up. Fucking wake up, Genma. This isn't cool. Don't do this to me, man."

Genma finally began to stir as the last of the blankets came off and the air started to cool his sweat-soaked clothes. As he opened his eyes, he coughed wetly and pulled his knees up, still shivering. "Rai?" he rasped. "What are you -- What time is it?" The coughing started again, this time accompanied by his nose beginning to run.

"Oh, for fucksake." Raidou sighed with relief and looked disgustedly at his friend. "You caught the fucking flu, didn't you? Shit. Don't breathe on me." Raidou stood up. "Fucking moron," he breathed. "Stay put. I'm going to go get you some water and then I'll call mom. You're probably staying with us, until you stop playing dead."

"I'm fine. Fuck right off. I'm just a little cold." Genma clutched at his legs, coughing. "I thought I saw mom -- I mean mine, not yours. Did you see her on your way in?"

That was when Raidou got scared, and started to look it. Genma's mother wasn't due home for another two weeks, at least. "Do. Not. Move. Not an inch. I will be right back." The glass of water was the easy part, but finding a thermometer involved tearing the bathroom apart, because he had no idea where it would be or if Genma even owned one. Luckily, he did, even if it was stuck behind the second shelf of the medicine cabinet.

Raidou was unmistakably his mother's son as he hurried back into Genma's room looking both worried and moderately pissed off. He wiped off the thermometer and handed it to Genma. "Under your tongue. Now. Do not argue with me or you'll be doing this the hard way."

Genma opened his mouth to say something sassy, but the sickness had knocked the sass right out of him, and he couldn't quite put together a suitably witty sentence. Instead, he stuck the thermometer in his mouth and waited, glaring at Raidou in childish petulance.

"I don't care what you think. Mom's going to ask, and if I can't tell her, we're both going to hear about it. You'd rather hear it from me, and you know it." Raidou shook his head irritatedly. "Why didn't you _call me_ when you started getting sick? You know that's what you're supposed to do. That's what I'm _there for_, you stupid bastard."

Genma really didn't feel like answering the question. He hadn't called because he hadn't realised how sick he was, and even if he _had_, he was fifteen, and damn well old enough to take care of himself. He just rolled his eyes and pointed at the thermometer. Maybe there was a reason to have the damn thing in his mouth after all.

After another few seconds of staring at his watch, Raidou reached forward and yanked the thermometer out of Genma's mouth. He tipped it and tilted it, finally getting an angle he could read, and with a look of pure disbelief, nearly dropped the thing. "Drink the water. Now." Raidou pointed to the glass on the nightstand. "I do not understand how in the hell you keep surviving your own stupidity. A hundred and fucking two and a _half_. You're lucky I'm here."

Genma guzzled the water, thirstily and then held out the glass with a dim, but cheery smile. "I am lucky you're here," he wheezed around the swelling and phlegm in his throat, "otherwise I'd have to get my own water."

Raidou just glared, pointedly, snatched the glass, and brought it back, full. Genma emptied it, again, panting and shaking. "I'm fine, Rai. Lay off. So, I have a little fever. So what? Lemme sleep it off."

"God preserve you from my sudden urge to break your face. I swear I will _carry you out_ if I have to. There's no way I can stay here long enough to keep you out of trouble. I hope like hell you're only that warm because of the blankets." Raidou rubbed his face in frustration. "Okay, now that you're coherent? _You thought your mother was here when I woke you up._ You're _hallucinating_. I can't -- You won't -- You're my best fucking friend, you stupid bastard, and I don't want you to drop dead because you can't be bothered to take care of yourself!"

"I'm not going to die from it. It's just a cold or something. It's not serious." Genma shivered and pulled up one of the blankets.

"It's probably the fucking flu, you idiot! People do die from that! Hello, Yellow Plague? The influenza epidemic of 1890? The even worse one of 1918? Modern medicine's not worth a damn if you don't _get off your sorry ass and get it_." Raidou held out his hand. "Please? Come on. You know my mom will take good care of you. And she's actually _home_. You know I can't ditch a week for you. Let me put it like this: When was the last time you ate?"

"I don't fucking know. Yesterday?" Genma looked pitiful at the thought of food, and his stomach finally protested its emptiness, loudly.

"Dumbass." Raidou leaned over the bed and pulled Genma toward him. "You don't have to walk, but you do have to lock the door. Do you know where your keys are?"

"In my pocket, where they belong, I'm sure. I can walk, you know," Genma grumbled, but slung an arm around Raidou's neck.

"Yeah, but I'm not letting you. Shut the fuck up. You're not that heavy and I don't want you falling down the stairs." As Genma grumbled his discontent and pulled out his keys, Raidou scooped him up and carried him out. "You are one lucky bastard." 


	6. Pain

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** In Corybantic Dance, Genma makes a reference to the dirtbike accident that he and Raidou got into, in which Raidou got his scars and Genma got his bad knee. This is a glimpse at the time they spent in the hospital._

_**Warnings:** Expletives, hospitals.  
_

* * *

"Why can't I die!? God, please let me die!"

Genma flinched and reached over to take Raidou's hand. The painkillers got less effective every day, but they wouldn't switch Rai up to something stronger because he was so young, and the doctors were afraid he'd get addicted. Genma really couldn't understand their worries about addiction when Raidou was in enough pain to wake the entire floor with his screaming. They'd finally resorted to keeping Rai pretty heavily sedated, most of the time, but the constant trickle of adrenaline that his body wouldn't stop producing interfered with the effectiveness of the sedatives. In short, Raidou was in terrible pain, and he was going to be conscious of almost every minute of it.

It wasn't that Genma was in much better shape; his kneecap had split when he bounced off the road, and his femur fractured when the bike finally skidded into him. Both the same leg, fortunately enough, but he was no more amused for the happy coincidence. Fractures, though, hurt a lot less than tissue damage. About a third of Raidou's face had peeled off, and judging from the deep tears down his neck, shoulder, and chest, he was lucky not to have broken his neck in the accident. He'd be lucky if he managed to work up enough scar tissue to fill it all in before he got an infection.

So, day after day, Genma would get up on his crutches and walk the three feet to the chair beside Raidou's bed and just sit there and hold his best friend's hand for hours. Sometimes he'd make bad jokes or sing silly songs, but most of the time Rai was too far gone to notice. Some days, Genma would rest his head on the side of the bed and cry, always careful that no one would see him do it. Some days, it was just too much. He was terrified that Raidou was going to die, and that he'd be alone in the world, again.

Today, Raidou screamed and cried, and Genma held a tissue under his friend's eye so the salt water wouldn't soak through the bandages. Genma had no illusions about just how easy he'd gotten out of that accident. Raidou was beside him, day and night, as a constant reminder. As the shrieking and sobbing slowed into whimpering and sniffling, Genma knew that the drugs were kicking in again, and that Raidou would be asleep again, soon. These were the good times -- these hazy, timeless blips between the pain fading out and Raidou passing out. Rai was almost coherent for maybe ten minutes at a time -- if he got anything like that long -- every four hours, or so.

Raidou squeezed Genma's hand, and looked over at him, surprised. "Genma?"

"Yeah, I'm right here, man. Right where you left me." Genma wadded up the tissue in his hand and tossed it in the small wastebin between their beds. "Come on, where am I going to go? It's not like I can walk."

Raidou smiled with the half of his face that still worked. "You just come over here to be a pain in my ass, don't you?"

"Hey, if I'm a pain in your ass, maybe it'll distract you from the pain in your face." Genma grinned, but the amusement never made it to his eyes. His eyes just looked tired and frustrated.

"Smartass." Raidou rolled his eyes -- well, his eye, anyway. The other one was in no condition to be rolled, just yet, having been put back in the socket so recently. "Hey, my throat's kinda sore. You want to pour me some water? I can't quite reach."

"Man, I don't even know why they gave you a nurse call button. You're just gonna make me do shit for you, anyway," Genma teased, pouring the water and putting the glass in Raidou's working hand. "Next thing you know, I'll be wearing some cute-ass miniskirt and calling you Master Namiashi."

"Hey, as long as it's longer than that damned hospital gown. I've seen more of your ass in the last two weeks--"

"How the hell do you even remember that? You're barely coherent!"

"Your ass sort of makes an impression, and not just on all the girls who want to grab it. I guess I was just trying to figure out the appeal, and I totally don't get it." Raidou yawned and handed the empty glass back to Genma. "Why the fuck am I so tired?"

"Oh, please be fucking with me, Rai. Not funny. You're tired because they switched you to sedatives. They've got you on more fucking Valium..." Genma shook his head and rolled his eyes. The drug wasn't actually Valium, but he couldn't remember the name of it, and Valium was close enough to make the point.

"Shit. Right. Sorry." Raidou's eyes closed. "I'm really glad you're here, Genma. This fucking sucks."

"Yeah, it does. It sucks in ways I hope you never remember." Genma rested his forehead against the side of the bed and held Raidou's hand in both of his. "Don't you dare die on me, asshole."

"I'll never be able to die in peace if you don't shut the fuck up, bastard." Raidou muttered, sinking closer to sleep.

"Well, I'll take that as a sign that I should be practising my Gary Numan impressions loudly, while you sleep. You know, just to make sure you keep breathing," Genma teased.

Raidou muttered something incomprehensible into the pillow as he drifted off. Genma stayed right where he was, deciding not to go back to bed, after all. It was four in the morning. It was June. In a hospital, neither of these things had meaning. Genma fell asleep in the chair, holding his best friend's hand. 


	7. Water

_**Disclaimer: **Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.  
_

_**Author's Note:** Genma's probably sixteen, here. This is the last instalment of Perfect Trust (for the moment, anyway), and Genma and Raidou are plastered._

_**Warnings:** Expletives, drunkenness.  
_

* * *

Genma lay on the floor of the room, singing classic Irish hits of the 1940s and 50s, lazily swinging the bottle of Jameson to keep time, and Raidou watched him in equally drunken amusement. "Well it's the one road, it may be the wrong road. It's the road to god knows where," he sang, "It's the one road, it may be the wrong road, but we're together so who cares?"

"You're completely shitfaced, aren't you?" Raidou was hardly one to talk, sitting leaned against the wall for balance, as he was, eyes closed to keep the spinning to a minimum.

"Prob'ly. Need more water. More water and I'll be fine." While Genma was too drunk to keep a topic of conversation for more than two or three sentences, he had the innate Irish sense to hold off a hangover.

"Put down the Jamie before you spill it. You can't get up if you're still holding the bottle." Raidou didn't even open his eyes.

"Hey, I'm not stupid." Genma reached back over his head and set the bottle on the bookcase. With a slightly nauseated groan, he rolled over onto his hands and knees and rested his forehead against the floor. "Stop the world; I wanna get off."

Raidou snickered. "Do you ever not want to get off? I thought that was just part of you."

"Oh, fuck you. You know what I meant," Genma scoffed, reaching for the doorknob with an intent to use it to stand.

"We've already been over this. You don't get to fuck me. I like girls." The drunker he became, the less restrained Raidou was -- verbally, at least.

"I look just as good in a dress," Genma protested, pulling himself to his feet. "And I know enough not to sit in your lap when you're bitchy."

"You still don't have tits!" Raidou called after Genma as the latter stumbled toward the kitchen for water.

Genma stuck his face under the faucet in the kitchen sink, letting the water cool him off as he slurped at it, drunkenly. After a few minutes of dull-witted face-rinsing, he stood back up, leaning one hip against the counter for balance while he looked through the cabinets for a large plastic cup. He wasn't certain he even owned one, but it would be a very good idea, just the same, as he wouldn't have to keep walking to the kitchen to refill it, and if he knocked it over, it wouldn't break. He finally settled for a plastic pitcher, filling it from the sink and holding it in both hands as he walked carefully back to his room.

"Water," he announced, resting his back on the doorframe and sliding slowly to the floor, careful not to spill the water, "is absolutely essential." He guzzled a pint off the top and held the pitcher out to Raidou.

"I'm still waiting for the day you pass out and piss yourself from all the water you drink when you're drunk." Raidou took the pitcher gratefully and drank from it.

"Not gonna happen. Alcohol's dehydrating. Have to put the water back, you know." Genma had obviously not thought his convictions all the way through -- alcohol was dehydrating, but the water it pulled out of the body still had to exit from somewhere.

"Yeah it will. I just hope I'm there to laugh when it does." Raidou took another drink and handed the pitcher back.

"Maybe I'll just tie a string around it to keep the water in." Genma stopped pouring water down his throat long enough to gaze thoughtfully at his pants.

Raidou laughed so hard he smacked his head on the wall. "I don't know where you've been, my lad, but I see you've won first prize," he sang, entirely off-key.

Genma set the pitcher down and rested his head against his knees, cackling helplessly. "Why," he lamented, still snickering, "oh, why do I not own a kilt?" 


End file.
